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Business News Deals Labels & Publishers
Universal publisher allies with Hillsong Church
By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 15 August 2019
Universal Music Publishing has announced a deal with the Hillsong Church, the Christian organisation that is so musical in its worshipping of God that it has its own music companies. And it’s the catalogues of those entities – Hillsong Music Publishing and Shout! Music Publishing – that Universal will now administrate in Europe.
The church’s catalogue includes an awful lot of Christian music, as you’d expect, though the Shout! Music Publishing set-up works with artists in an assortment of genres. Under the new deal, as well as doing all the tedious admin on the Hillsong/Shout! catalogues in Europe, the major may also collaborate with the church on future signings.
“The administration agreement with Hillsong is a fantastic relationship that has grown from initially exploring collaborative and creative ideas to formalising a partnership in a unique environment”, says Universal Music Publishing UK A&R Dougie Bruce. “We are looking forward to integrating their writers into our team and identifying key opportunities across the music sphere. UMPG will also handle some 11,000 existing works, and new signings and songs will further increase this catalogue”.
Over at Hillsong, its Publishing Manager Steve McPherson adds: “UMPG are leaders in the music publishing world and we’re looking forward to exploring the opportunities for our songwriters and have great respect and trust in their team. We have had fruitful relationships within the Universal family in different parts of the world for many years and we’re very excited to extend this to the UK and Europe”.
